The Times Crossword Friday Masterclass: 26 April 2024

[Music] hello and welcome to Friday's bonus edition of cracking the cryptic where every week uh for well over a year now um either mark Or I has attempted to solve the times cross word live for you and to talk through our thought processes when we do it now today the snitch rating the snitch is an unofficial rating of the difficulty of a Times puzzle and it suggests today's puzzle is easy um or easier than a Friday's would typically be and easier than an average Times puzzle although the there was one statistic in the snitch rankings which said that 76 solvers um have had their snitch score uh sort of ignored because of Errors which suggests that this might be if might have a trap in it this puzzle um and at the moment the yeah you see there's this this bug with the leaderboards at the moment so I can't actually see what's going on uh but we've got I think I've got the dictionary software yeah we've got the dictionary software um I don't think I oh I didn't check I might have a birthday to do today I must just check that sorry sorry because some people like to have a birthday um announcement yeah see it's Andrew isn't it I might have to just pause the video Andrew I know it's your birthday and I was meant to read you I was meant to one second I'll be back I was right I was right Andrew many happy returns I think it's your 51st birthday today I know this because your buddy Bert wrote to us and Bert thank you for the cryptic crossword clue I was able to solve it I believe you referring to my favorite cake um but anyway happy birthday Andrew I hope you have some of my favorite cake today but with that let's let's get cracking and um see what this puzle has on offer for us um let's go one across author in online catalog okay let's stop there I don't know what the answer is I don't think um but online catalog when when we see online in a cryptic crossword clue cryptic crossword writers think that everything online begins with the sort of abbreviation E so like Ecommerce so when I see online catalog I'm thinking e-list [Music] um yeah I want this to be I want this to be something like essayist I don't online catalog after end of autumn well the end of autumn is an N Ah that's really this one's annoying me I think I think I should be able to solve that and I can't quite see it so let's have a look at one that stated opposition about very small service um right yeah okay interesting so I have got this one and the way the way to get at this one is to remember that every cryptic crossword clue contains a quick crossword clue I.E a definition and it's that definition is almost always at the start or the end of the clue so here let's let's I mean I think most of the art of cryptic crossword solving is being able to divide the clue correctly between word play and definition and one trick that you can use to do that is to look for words that indicate the position of things or indicate that something might be needed to be shuffled or repositioned or I don't know moved somehow because that's almost certainly wordplay so if we read this glue stated opposition about out so that seems to be saying can you think of a word that means stated opposition and because if you can you could put that about you could put it around the edges of something that means very or very small to give a word that means service so these are like mathematical equations so once you have that thought can we think of a word for service that's four letters long now because I've done so many cryptic crosswords when I see service I don't think of you know a tennis service or a service I think of a um part of the army part a military force so so my thought went to Navy and then all of a sudden sort of the clouds clear and the light Dawns doesn't it because stated opposition um if you state opposition to um in a debate you know it would be the eyes versus The Nay everyone nay just like that so nay is a is a word that you use vocally to State opposition uh and that goes around very small now I think very small I think small here is being is being used to indicate we want an abbreviation for the word very because the Navy isn't I don't think you can describe the Navy as a small service that just doesn't feel right at all small is interesting there cuz it's almost Superfluous because very can be uh V can be very obviously without um without needing to be with the small qualifier in the clue let's see if we can find it very there it is so that again if if if if an abbreviation is used in one of these clues or in the word play it must be supported by the dictionary so Navy is right okay and now now let's return to one across where we've got this end of autumn well the last letter of autumn is n so that seems to be this end doesn't it so we need it we need the name of an author that's eight letters long Nabokov is seven uh and it's probably got some e-list connotation or something um author Nesbit no uh let's try well no let's try and get nine across first and then we'll try two down nine across SA female in charge in place of a oh in place of a couple of gentlemen okay well most of you I'm sure are familiar with the works of Shakespeare and even if you don't know much about the Two Gentlemen of Verona you're probably familiar with the title of it so a couple a place of a couple of gentlemen I think is referring to Verona so is this Veronica St Veronica I think I've heard of St Veronica and here we can see in charge well that's IC and you might say why is why is that justified well if we go to the dictionary I see integrated internal combustion oh come on no it should be there honestly I don't well I've been hoisted by my own patard there it's definitely oh God it's definitely supported by the dictionary and now now all my stuff about abbreviations have to be what what's going on I don't understand in charge is there does it maybe it says it in the actual no in charge is is giv I wondered if the abbreviation was going to be listed well I mean it just is that that's really that's really poor of me um but in charge definitely could be IC um and yeah the dictionary isn't supporting that which sort of I don't understand why not maybe it's in there somewhere I've just not not seen it but so we've got in charge in in in so that goes inside the place of a couple of gentlemen which is Verona giving us Veronica St Veronica must be the reference so two down as such there's no difference between best and worst as such there's no difference between best and worst I don't know what that is I haven't got a clue I don't don't really understand how to read the clue there let's try three down learner with an unhappy experience one who's invested in his Fields farmer uh learner with an unhappy experience well learner you you see this on car number plates if you see an L plate it's a learner plate so learner I I want to put l there in fact that would oh novelist is right ah so I wasn't looking for the actual name oh right the end of autumn is November is that right oh that's weird okay I didn't wouldn't have Associated November necessarily with the end of autumn I would have said the end of autumn is a sort of movable date but apparently um November might be the official end of autumn I don't know because I think what the way this clue broks down is with my e-list idea for online catalog going after nov I.E November maybe if we look up November it'll say officially the end of autumn no the 11th month of the year oh maybe if we look up Autumn uh oh well approximately from September to November in the northern hemisphere I mean yeah that's I think that's really why is there no question mark there at least that's really strange that's a very strange clue um but yeah I think November is the reference and then eist to give novelist being an author right what uh let's go back to this one then as such well is this very there's no different or very maybe there's no difference between best and worst I'm taking my time over this because there is a clue in this puzzle that I think has a a trick in it or a trap because if that snitch thing is right and 76 people have made an error then it's going to be a clue like this or a clue with a very very obscure word as such there's no difference between best and worst um I don't know I'm feeling a bit I'm feeling I'm being very slow about that let's go back to this one knowing we've got to deal with this one at some point learner with see learner with an could be L plus an couldn't it Lancaster or something a d oh landowner Downer is an unhappy experience so okay so a land owner is somebody who would invest in his fields and so we got L and then an and then Downer for the unhappy experience so let's try for down what causes communal tension it's Americans out of order communal tension I mean it's Americans looks like it's anagram foro because if we put those letters out of order that's it's telling us to anagram them and I think that is 12 letters so what Comm causes communal tension and the answer is going to be sectarianism I like that that feels right doesn't it sectarianism now the other way that there could be common erors in this puzzle is if there's a commonly misspelled word I think that's how you spell sectarianism my phone's buzzing let me that's okay um uh yeah I think that's right let's try let's try 12 across one of seven letters from country admitting old novelist and separately me one of seven I think is going to be the definition here letters from one of seven letters no from country so I think we need the name of a country and that's going to have inside it o for old a novelist probably the name of a novelist although I thought I thought that about one across and then me somewhere one of seven Royal loyal I'm not I'm not not thinking of the right answer let's try five across go quickly out of control indication of indecision after caution an indication of indecision I mean could be shrug or something but I'm thinking of um or uh so I quite like the idea this ends in um or uh like uh like that or like this and go quickly out of control so something like Slither but not Slither and we need a a word for caution probably a four-letter word for caution warn War them Warner go quickly out of control oh bother I'm not doing very well today let's try um six down probably still got holiday brain that's my excuse alternative to a word I can never pronounce is it I can never say this the Rev or something isn't it but let's look it mean oh no if I look I'll see the definition but it's basically the you know it's it's the um it's the bugle call at the break of day or something isn't it um in territorial Army alternative to in territorial Army is normally ta um but um it's interesting because then then you have to decide okay well what's the definition in this clue alternative to revi in territorial Army well if we're putting something in ta for territorial Army that would suggest that this is it's an alternative five letter word for an alternative beginning with t ending in a I mean I'm only really thinking of Tiara and th Theta TKA the utter ah no is it alarm okay all right right I say this every week and it's almost always true but there's normally one hidden answer in a Times crossword um where literally the answer is spelled out in the clue and if we look inside territorial Army we can see spelled out a l a r m so in territorial Army is saying literally look inside the words territorial Army and you will find the word alarm spelled out now revi or how you say it I didn't think that was an alarm I thought it was just like a wakeup call I suppose that isn't wakeup call is an alarm yeah okay fair enough then so maybe I mean I've never been in the Army but maybe in the Army what happens to wake everybody up is they do the toot on the on the on the on the on on on on the on the instrument they toot on the instrument wakes everyone up so and that is an alternative to an alarm clock type thing ah now we were thinking we might have to put me in this one something summary or something H don't know let's try should try 11 down hostile frenzied action gains time wow I mean again quite clever clue writing because I'm reading that I think it's going to mean hostile but I'm not I'm not certain oh okay yeah frenzi is very common an anagram indicator because if you treat the letters of something in a frenzied way they sort of Wiggle about all over the place so how about if we anagram action gains and then t for time because T can be abbreviated to time what time can be abbreviated to T I should say so hostile is going to be something like I want I keep wanting to see against in this but I I doubt it is that hostile antagonistic or something and I think that's right antagonist that looks pretty good actually an on mytic there we go ah so what's this then numbers one of seven but I want that to be an e H one of seven letters maybe from country it's really I haven't got that one I anyway Predator let's try ten across this doesn't feel that easy to me Predator that apparently prays in Mass with enemies a mantis I suppose a praying mantis I've heard of yeah okay so Mass can be M um trying to think of a uh fals ma from science Force equals masstimes int acceleration so um that's that demonstrating why Mass can be be abbreviated to M and then enemies are anes uh and a mantis is a as in a praying mantis I think is what's being got out there so seven down plays some music say record isn't remix well I mean what I want to do there is to anagram 10 letters in this clue and remix is very much indicating okay um that you know that we should find the 10 letters to anagram before the word remix because we are going to remix those letters but there are actually 11 letters before um Before remix record isn't a is 11 letters now remember there should be nothing Superfluous in a cryptic crossword clue so it isn't acceptable for this a to be in the clue and not required for it and and that indicates that perhaps I have misre or slightly I slightly misunderstood okay okay I have got this now so that a is important but the way we need to read the clue is isn't a is what's being anagrammed not record isn't a and if we anagram isn't a at the end of the answer we could create tains and if you record something in a log book you would enter it and entertains to play some music say for example would be to entertain so entertains is going to be correct there so what's this one then oh caution is care if you take care you you show caution and then career so er we we said indication of indecision might be ER or um and career if you go quickly out of control you career don't you so I like that eight down toughness resilience on island in sound just the opposite um oh Roman numeral one of seven letters from oh that's going to be right because the Roman numeral the Roman numerals are one or i v x that's three uh L for 50 that's four um C for 100 D for 500 and M so that's all of them and there are seven okay I've never thought about that before so Roman numeral is going to be the answer there uh one of seven letters and then how does it work in terms of the word play Old novelist and separately me from the country it's going to be rural or something yeah country is rural and that has me in it and it also has Oh Thomas man Goodness Me O and then Thomas man m a n so the novelist there was Thomas man so R so you put oh and man and separately me in rural okay I will forgive myself for not immediately understanding that and it's this resilience let's put resilience in and try and justify it so toughness is resilience on could be re something's re something it's about it it's on that subject Island it's sound okay just the opposite okay the opposite of sound is silence isn't it I mean actually I'm not sure if my guitar is in the right tuning at the moment but I mean if it is I have to do this don't I [Music] it wasn't sh roughly um anyway but the opposite of sound is uh is silence so and if we put I for Island in silence we would get silience so resilience gives us the answer toughness is resilience so let's try 16 across hopefully we won't get a copyright strike for my uh rendition of the acoustic sound of silence which I saw Paul Simon play at the O2 when I had good seats and the whole crowd well I say the whole crowd but many of the crowd were weeping uh 16 across far from Lively prisoner Sheltering a new one far from Lively inanimate is what I'm thinking there inmate must be somehow related to this so prisoner is an inmate Sheltering a new one so in an inmate yeah so we've got a new n can be an abbreviation for new one we've already seen is the Roman numeral for the number one um and that gives us inanimate as the answer um let's try this one is it Sonic or is it ionic at home no it's probably neither uh wearing headgear having oh Panic yeah okay it's Panic nothing nothing to do with so if you're at home you're in that wears headgear so it has around the outside of it cap which is headgear and that turns back so the whole thing is then reversed and if you're in a flap you're in a panic so that oh what's this one naturally nobody speaks this Esperanto is a sort of madeup language isn't it um strangely neat Pros is saying anagram neat Pros so es I'm never sure about how to spell espiranto um but it looks like it's got two e in it from neat Pro so I'm going to go with that uh okay so let's go back to this one one parliamentarian okay well let's not let's stop there a parliamentarian in the UK is an MP so one I MP parliamentarian with kind of voice that's influential kind of voice it's going to be okay oh I was thinking of the active voice because you get the active voice and the passive voice but impactive a slightly I just said impactful or impacting I I think impactive must be a word if something is impactive has impact yeah it's probably okay but it's just not it's not a word I would naturally use um right do we go let's go for 13 down if we can crack 13 down we would have a very good chance I think of filling in this bottom part of the puzzle and we'd just be left with trying to understand what on Earth to down is referring to so impassive sort of stone faced is what I'm thinking fire controller fire controller female provided great service a great service is an ace impass is going to be it is something like Stone faced or it's something faced I think because I can see how um how we could deduce female can be F might see that on um bathroom an M or an F depending on um who goes into them so we've got F and then provided great service well in tennis if you did provide if you provided a great service you aced somebody didn't you so faced is really good there so fire controller fire controller is going to be hydrant is uh uh uh oh why can't I just write that in steel steel faced fire controller I don't know let's try 15 then about half of score well half of score a score is 20 so half a score might be 10 in many CA okay in many cases if something is in many cases it is often isn't it so about half of score if something was about 10 it would be of 10 so of 10 I'm I'm sure is right there uh oh now what is this then fire controller a poac no it's not that about impassive fire controller um a hose uh I'm trying to think of what you have on your on your fire at home you have a great don't you um oh mine's gone blank that's really poor okay so this one and this one now let's try 14 down block proposal for cinemat cinem cinematographic cinematographic technique o okay this is something like stop motion or something because a proposal in a debate is a motion and motion like motion capture is a thing in cinematography isn't it so we need a word that means block blank t blank p i mean stop if you stop something you block it so stop motion is that a thing I don't know I mean stop or step I would have thought now can step be a block can a block be a step I don't think so not naturally so stop motion I'm going to go for I don't I don't know that expression um illustration in book is Central to revised Perfection okay [Music] um well revised Perfection to me is saying let's revise eyes let's anagram the words or the letters of perfection um and that would give us 10 letters I think is that 10 or is it more no it is only 10 I need 12 B is book is typically [Music] B illustration H why can't I just write that in I'm not I'm not seeing that um straight away so we come back to that chil hot ingredient for Source despite what you hear okay well if something was chill if you hear the word chil and it was it wasn't in context you might think it was referring to the state of the weather and if it was chilly it would be cold um so I think that this is this although again that's interesting yeah I mean because obviously switching this letter around would absolutely be a trap so if there was a way of reading this clue such that the answer must be chil with a Y I would definitely get it wrong but I think hot ingredient I mean we talked about the fact the definition is normally at the start or the end of the clue so hot ingredient for Source I think is defining the word Chile with an i at the end and what you might hear if you hear that word you would hear it as a cold word so I I think it must be this way around let's try 26 having a meal dining sound as a bell ding content to be doubled up okay yeah so it's dining because if you take the word ding which would be to sound as a bell dingding um the contents of the word ding are the I and the N the middle bit of the so if that if that middle bit the I and the N is doubled we get two lots of in in the middle of D of D and G and we get dining which is obviously to have a meal now what's this felon felon or colon I'm thinking gripping part of hobby ah this is talent I think I think a hobby uh can be a bird of prey like a Harrier or something and the gripping part of a b you know that a bird of prey would use is a Talon so we'll check this at the end obviously but I don't like to use the dictionary unless uh I commit to an answer I am committed to Talon so we might as well look it up I suppose let's check Hobby I'm certain that it is a bird of prey of some sort oh Falcon okay so nearly but Talon therefore is Justified so what is this illustration in book um right well that's that's very difficult there is a word frontis piece I think this is a word I only know from crosswords I guess it's an illustration in a book um oh I see yeah okay so illustration in a book is the definition and then is is this is spelled out and that's in an anagram of perfection so we were sort of on the right lines it's just it's just such a weird word that it didn't occur to me immediately but if we look it up frontis there we go frontis piece an illustration at the front of a book facing the title page the principal face of a building uh a decorated pediment over a door gate Etc and it's also a verb so not an easy word oh can I has my brain has my subconscious been working on 13 down with the fire controller Um poker it has so poker vast is obviously the answer there you've all been shouting that at me thank you I think my brain has in some way heard you um let's try 25 Cross small probably s again we talk about this most weeks but it's it's come a lot more common in the Times crossword actually I think the use of s for small in The Last 5 Years I didn't I don't think it used to be sort of often used before that so maybe there has been a change in the editorial allowances as to what what can be an abbreviation because I'm pretty sure as well my version this is the chambers online Chambers CD ROM which I had to uh every time I get a new computer I have to find somebody on eBay who's selling this because uh it's you can't buy it anymore um as a new product um and I don't think that s for small is Justified here now it will be and I'll look silly uh let's just have a quick look I haven't seen it yet which doesn't mean not there but I'm just trying to have it see it quickly but I think yeah and then it sort of goes off into various other um more complicated abbreviations but no none of us would deny that if you looked at a t-shirt label and had an s on it it would mean small wouldn't it so I I I'm not contesting its validity I'm just saying it's it's sort of newer thing so small missile making shrill noise so we need a missile trident strident yeah it's making a shrill no noise I think strident is going to be good there and then what's this screw top kind of bottle screw top [Music] um uh so crew for Sailors found in an end and an end is a stop so that's fairly clear uh so it's all coming back to this one 22 down parts of body more than twice more than twice as long as hands parts of body more than twice as long as hands what what what on Earth is that saying um parts of body more than twice more than twice as long as hands I'm so sorry I I I know I'm just reading it over and over again and you're all thinking we'll just write in the answer Simon well I'd love to but it's it's odd because it seems to very much be a plural doesn't it yet this ends in t feet then parts of body more than twice as long as hands why why is that the right answer but and by the way um if you're if you're sort of saying oh well my feet you know each of my feet Fe they are about twice as long as my hands no no no no no no you can't these these Clues are not literal so you can't sort of say oh well yes I'm looking for a part of my body that's twice as long as my hands oh it's it's probably my foot and therefore feet is the answer there are things called cryptic definitions but they require some element of cryptic and just defining something that's twice as long as your hands which is what this clue would be apparently doing is is not going to be good enough so I'm I'm wondering if it's sort of metrical feet as in poetry but I don't think a hand is a is a unit in poetry more than twice I which might mean feet is wrong so let's try let's try and get this one anyway parrots for example sent up well parrots could be pets so in a bit of a flight is a step as in a bit of a flight of stairs so we've got feet possibly for this one and I don't understand this one either so two this is why there are so many errors in this I'm absolutely convinced imagine this wasn't feet I could very much imagine people especially if you're racing which many of us do you sort of look at this you think of a word for parts of the body that's plural that fits and you slap it in not really understanding it but expecting it to be right because how could there be a second answer and there is a second answer and it's better yeah this is how mistakes happen so we're going to have to focus on this to that as such there's no difference between best and worst you see there is no diff if you best somebody you beat them and if you worst somebody you beat them oh verb verb that's beautiful that's a really clever clue to best and to worst is what it's saying so it's saying if if you view these words as verbs they are they mean the same thing and they do whereas if you were to describe somebody as the best or describe somebody as the worst that would mean they would be opposites they'd be antonyms I love that that's very clever very very nice clue I don't I guess people could just slap in very or very on the basis it's so so hard to see oh it's hard for me to see ver but maybe it's not hard for most people um right so 22 down this is possibly the Trap parts of body more than twice as long as hands what could there could there be another answer there's not feet here um let me just think and I know it's annoying um I feel like it must be annoying um parts of the body parts of body more than twice as long as more than twice as long as that's so strangely phrased um parts of body I haven't I haven't come up with anything better yet more than twice well if it was feet why would it be feet okay or is it okay is it trying to refer to the unit of length the foot maybe I mean there is a h a hand I think was an old way of measuring the height of a horse so maybe it has an official length and maybe and maybe the official definition of how long a foot is is more than twice as long as how long a hand is that I I can buy that that might be right I I can't justify it with we're going to have to look at the dictionary but I think I would therefore submit feet and I'm not sure whether feet is the Trap probably not maybe verb is the Trap or this could be step motion that would definitely be a bad trap so there are there are tricky things here so let's submit leaderboard isn't working at the moment let's see if I've got it right if I haven't got it right I have got it right okay so let's try and justify especially let's go to um hand and see if it's just got an official see I thought you you could measure the height of a horse I'm not actually seeing Oh a measure of four okay a measure of 4 in really okay so a hand is 4 in um and I think a foot is 12 in so that would be three times as long as a hand so okay I mean it's a very odd clue to be honest that is that slightly strange let's try stop motion is that there or do I have to put the space in it's not even listed or maybe it's hyphenated ah there it is yeah there it is stop motion an adjective of or relating to stop motion animation a technique in which filming is repeatedly stopped to allow very slight changes of position in the subjects being filmed so this is how Wallace and grommet was made isn't it I think I think you know those plaster scene figures what fantastic films if you never Watch Wallace and grommet I mean when that penguin gets caught at the end I mean that is that is as funny as most things you'll ever see anyway um I think that's probably stop motion animation um now what else didn't we understand that's a good question uh oh I was going to look up revi how do you how do you say this RI R oh relli yeah relli that yeah this is rali it's got a lot of different pronunciations actually look it could be rali Rell rali or something or what on Earth is that r or something um yeah so the relli r the re I still can't do it it just resists my pronunciation abilities the relli relli I think is is the way I'm meant to say it so that's probably been a course course of amusement sorry to everybody out there who has some semblance of a brain who has been laughing at me um so relli oh I didn't look at the definition uh the sound oh a drum or bugle it Daybreak okay so it is it is an alarm is very much an alternative to that entertains we understood The Sound of Silence we understood um I don't oh let's just look at strident because you think of strident is in a sort of attitude don't you but there it is of a voice loud and grating so it is it is absolutely right there um really interesting puzzle a couple of slightly odd Clues but definitely made me think and I enjoyed it a lot um if you enjoy the videos do let us know perhaps drop a like on the video we' be most grateful or even subscribe to the channel we're trying to teach the algorithm um that cryptic crosswords are a thing that uh that that should have YouTube's respect it's a hard thing to convince YouTube of this uh but YouTube is wrong in this instance and there is I think definitely there ought to be a lot of love out there for these wonderful wonderful puzzles um thank you for watching and we'll be back later with another edition of cracking the cryptic [Music]

Channel: Cracking The Cryptic

Views: 14,434

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Id: 3c4U_NBwnZU

Length: 48min 12sec (2892 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 26 2024